F.A.Q.
Here is a collection of questions that I feel if people could ask me, they would. As well as a few questions that have actually been asked about my trip.
So how did you save up the money for this trip?
I’d like to say I budgeted myself but I really never officially set up any plan other than to take a chunk from every paycheck and put it directly into savings. I tried my hardest to eat out less but it was very difficult. Also, moving back home for the last 3 months before my trip has helped cut down on bills.
Are you scared?
Yes and No. I go through phases. During the day at work or when i’m at home being active I feel invincible and I never worry about my well-being on the road. It seems that the anxiety hits me when i’m laying in bed staring at the ceiling and trying to go to sleep. Every problem from wondering how the hell i’m going to find a bus station in Jakarta to “What if I just completely break down and lose myself in a remote part of Malaysia?” The key is for me to take it one day at a time and everything should work out. It is when I start thinking about the big picture and the length of time I will be away that I begin to to sweat a bit.
What part of your trip are you most excited about?
A few highlights have me the most excited. The idea of doing a mountain gorilla trek in the rainforests of Rwanda, visiting quiet towns along the Mekong in Laos, feeling the energy of Bangkok and basking in the sun on one of Thailand’s many islands.
What part of your trip are you the most nervous about?
I’d have to say the beginning. I will be spending 2 weeks in Ethiopia at the start of my trip and I figure if I can make it through that then the rest should be a breeze. Ethiopia doesn’t have the tourist infrastructure that a lot of the other destinations have and the path is a little more rugged. I look forward to the challenge. The only other portion would be my first few days in Indonesia. The media has painted a picture in my head of a nation pretty well against the views of my own country’s politics. I guess the same could be said for a lot countries but Indonesia seems to permeate my thoughts.
Yea, seriously… aren’t you worried about being labeled an American and treated poorly as you travel?
I have only had one experience during my travels where I felt a little uncomfortable in a group where I was the only American. It is extremely rare so i’m not overly worried about it. Even in a muslim nation the majority of people are genuinely nice and never make you feel guilty for who you are or where you come from.
Do you speak any other languages?
Nope. I plan on picking up a few phrases before I enter the next country that i’m going to. I must learn some Amharic, the laguage of Ethiopia, if i’m going to last one day while i’m there. I have a few language guide podcasts for my Ipod that I will use to brush up on Thai, Vietnamese, Lao and Bahasan (Indonesia) before I get to those countries. I’m hoping with a little bit of try and a whole lot of luck in finding english speakers, that i’ll be ok.
What are you going to do when you get back?
Aaah, the million dollar question. I’d like to say I have my short-term future planned out but to be honest my whole future up until now has been this trip so I really don’t have much else figured out. I’m hoping that with all the time I will be spending alone in deep thought that something is sure to give.
Ok, ok, so you don’t know what you are going to do when you get back, but surely you have other places that you want to go?
Absolutely. I have a few dream trips that will require less time. I have always wanted to travel overland through Central and South America. Take the Trans-Siberian Railway from Europe to the far east. Climb Kilimanjaro, do a safari in the Serengeti, cruise the Niger to Timbouktou and check out the rest of Mali. Maybe get a closer look at Everest from base camp. I figure i’m starting now so I have plenty of time to get it all done.
How come you have a picture of the temple in Lhasa, Tibet but you don’t mention anything about going to Tibet during your trip?
Good question. Probably because I think it looks pretty cool.
Ok, and why aren’t you going to Tibet?
Another good question. I really want to go to Tibet sometime soon but it just didn’t fit well into the itinerary for this trip. Getting to Tibet can be very difficult, especially with all the red tape you have to go through with the Chinese government. I figure in a couple of years I can travel the India sub-continent, and visit Nepal and Tibet all at one time rather than spread myself too thin this time around.
And finally, why travel? Why not start a family? A career? Why not save for a house or retirement?
For this question, I absolutely have to refer to an excerpt from a book I read a couple of years ago that really changed how I looked at travel on a long term basis rather than just 2 week vacations every year. It is called Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. He talks about a story told from tradition of a group of Christian Monks living in Egypt about 1700 years ago.
In the tale, a couple of monks named Theodore and Lucious shared the acute desire to go out and see the world. Since they’d made vows of contemplation, however, this was not something they were allowed to do. So, to satiate their wanderlust, Theodore and Lucious learned to “mock their temptations” by relegating their travels to the future. When the summertime came, they said to each other, “We will leave in the winter.” When the winter came, they said, “We will leave in the summer.” They went on like this for over fity years, never once leaving the monasetery or breaking their vows.
Most of us, of course, have never taken such vows– but we chose to live like monks anyway, rooting ourselves to a home or a career and using the future as a kind of phony ritual that justifies the present. In this way, we end up spending (as Thoureau put it) “the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it.” We’d love to drop all and explore the world outside, we tell ourselves, but the time never seems right. Thurs, given an unlimited amount of choices, we make none. Settling into our lives, we get so obsessed with holding on to our domestice certainties that we forget why we deseired them in the first place.
Joey
That Rolf Potts quote really is splendid. I love it. I’m blogging it myself.
I’m so glad that you found me today online…while you are in Cambodia, of all places!
Can’t wait to hear more of your tales.
Best of everything to you…
*angi
I e-mailed you with the fark e-mail adress